Thomas Jefferson Papers
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To Thomas Jefferson from Philippe de Létombe, 28 February 1801

From Philippe de Létombe

Philadelphie, 9 ventose an 9
de la Republique francaise
(28 fevrier 1801)

Monsieur Le Président,

Rien n’a pu retarder mon empressement de répondré à la confiance dont vous m’honorez. Aussitot après avoir reçu votre lettre, je me suis mis à la recherche de ce que vous desirez et je viens de trouver précisément ce qui vous convient.

Ç’est un homme de 42 ans; probe; sédentaire; d’une humeur toujours égale; parlant le francais et l’anglais; uniquement attaché à ses devoirs; s’occupant sans cesse; adroit à tous les petits ouvrages; entendant parfaitement l’office et fort instruit de son état de Maître d’Hotel; toujours attentif à l’économie dans la maison; en état enfin de surveiller un domestique nombreux. Mais il est marié et ne veut pas quitter sa femme qui a 44 ans et point d’enfans. Elle seroit une excellente Femme de charge, en état de prendre le plus grand soin du linge de table et de corps, de l’argenterie, des meubles, et de tenir une maison dans le plus grand ordre.—Leur ayant demandé le prix de leur service, ils ont répondu qu’ils ne vouloient plus servir, que dieu avoit béni leurs travaux et qu’ils avoient de quoi vivre honnêtement. Mais à votre nom, Monsieur, ils ont consenti à tout et ils vous demandent Cent guinées de gage (annuellement pour eux deux): c’est à dire Rien en comparaison de l’utilité dont ils vous seront. Le mari a dit, avec enthousiasme, qu’il avoit eu l’honneur de Vous servir plusieurs fois chez le chevalier de Freire dont il etoit le Maitre d’Hotel.—Le chevalier d’Yrujo, Monsieur de Ternant, Monsieur Flamand Vous certifieront le compte que J’ai l’honneur de vous rendre de ces bonnes gens.—Ainsi, honorez moi de vos ordres: le mari partira, sur le champ, pour Washington et sa femme s’y rendra aussitot après avoir disposé de la maison qu’ils occupent et qui leur appartient.—Vous voyez, Monsieur, qu’il n’y a plus de difficultés à composer votre maison. Cette composition ne vous donnera aucun embarras. Tout l’art consiste à donner à chacun la tâche qu’il sait faire. Et quoi que votre modestie (qui est celle d’un grand homme) ait bien voulu m’en dire, Vous n’en trouverez pas plus à composer l’Administration de votre Gouvernement et à confirmer cette maxime d’un ancien: que pour former un bon Gouvernement il faut que les Philosophes soient souverains ou les souverains Philosophes.

Votre lettre, Monsieur, m’a ému, attendri; je me suis mis à pleurer après l’avoir lue. Votre suffrage est la récompense la plus flatteuse de mes longs travaux. C’est l’honneur de ma vieillesse. Assurément Vous me faites regretter de n’être pas le témoin des prodiges que Vous allez opérer. J’ai un sucçesseur. Mais j’entendrai de ma retraite les acclamations de l’Amérique et j’y mêlerai ma voix foible et cassée.

Je vous supplie, Monsieur, de vouloir bien agréér mon profond Respect.

Létombe

P.S. Protecteur des beaux Arts,

J’ouvre ma lettre pour y joindre une Marche que mon Chancelier, partageant l’enthousiasme public, a composé, qu’il met à vos pieds et qu’il vous supplie de vouloir bien agréér. Elle vient d’être éxécutée à grand chœur. Elle a eu le plus grand sucçès. Ses partitions et le chant seront gravés pour mercredi prochain, jour des rejouissances ici pour votre installation á la Présidence.

L

editors’ translation

Philadelphia, 9 Ventose Year 9
of the French Republic
(28 February 1801)

Mr. President,

Nothing could restrain my haste in answering the confidence with which you honor me. Immediately after receiving your letter, I set out to seek what you desire, and I have just found exactly what suits you.

He is a man, 42 years old, of integrity, settled, of a constantly even disposition, speaking French and English, attached solely to his duties, always keeping busy, skilled in all the minor chores; understanding perfectly the pantry, and very knowledgeable about his position as maîtred’; always attentive to the household economy; able, in sum, to watch over numerous servants. But he is married and does not wish to leave his wife, who is 44 years old with no children. She would be an excellent housekeeper, able to take the greatest care of the personal and table linen, the silverware, the furniture, and to keep the house in the strictest order.—Having asked them the price of their service, they answered that they did not wish to serve any longer, that God had blessed their labor and that they had enough to live decently. But at your name, Sir, they agreed to everything, and they ask you for one hundred guineas wages (annually for both of them): that is to say, nothing in comparison to how useful they will be to you. The husband said enthusiastically that he had had the honor to serve you several times in the home of the Chevalier de Freire, whose maître d’ he was. The Chevalier de Irujo, Monsieur de Ternant, and Monsieur Flamand will vouch for the account I have the honor to render you concerning these fine people.—So, honor me with your orders: the husband will depart immediately for Washington, and his wife will go there as soon as she has disposed of the house they occupy, and which belongs to them.—You see, Sir, there are no more difficulties in forming your household. This arrangement will be no burden to you. The whole art is in giving to each person the task that he or she knows how to do. And whatever your modesty (which is that of a great man) may have wished to tell me about it, you will not find it any more burdensome to form the administration of your government and confirm this maxim of an ancient: that to form a good government the philosophers must be sovereigns or the sovereigns, philosophers.

Your letter, Sir, moved me, affected me; I began to weep after reading it. Your approval is the most flattering reward of my long labors. It is the honor of my old age. Definitely, you make me regret not to witness the miracles that you are going to bring to pass. I have a successor. But I shall hear from my retreat America’s applause and I shall mingle with it my weak and broken voice.

I beg you, Sir, please to accept my deep respect.

Létombe

P.S. Protector of the fine arts,

I am opening my letter to include a march that my chancellor, sharing the public enthusiasm, has composed, which he lays at your feet and begs you to accept. It has just been performed with a great choir. It has had the greatest success. Its score and lyrics will be engraved for next Wednesday, the day of rejoicing here for your installation in the presidency.

L

RC (DLC); at foot of first page: “Thomas Jefferson, Président des Etatsunis d’amérique”; endorsed by TJ as received 4 Mch. and so recorded in SJL. Enclosure: see below.

Joseph Rapin was the Maître D’Hotel suggested by Létombe in reply to TJ’s request of 22 Feb.; see Rapin to TJ, 3 Apr. 1801.

Monsieur Flamand may have been Philadelphia grocer James Flamand (Stafford, Philadelphia Directory, for 1801 description begins Cornelius William Stafford, The Philadelphia Directory, for 1801, Philadelphia, 1801 description ends , 140).

Maxime d’un ancien: in The Republic, Plato expounded Socrates’ argument that ideal government could be attained only if kings became philosophers or philosophers became kings (Plato, The Republic, Paul Shorey, trans., 2 vols. [London, 1930–35], l:xvii, 508–9).

Une Marche: likely “Jefferson’s March,” called by the Aurora “an original composition … by a French gentleman of great musical talents.” Neither the newspaper nor published arrangements of the score named the composer, who may have been Peter S. Du Ponceau. On a handbill that Charles Willson Peale sent to TJ Peale identified Du Ponceau as the author of a “Solemn Invocation” sung at the Philadelphia ceremony that commemorated TJ’s inauguration on 4 Mch. (see Peale to TJ, 8 Mch., and illustration). Du Ponceau also matched Létombe’s characterization of the composer of the march as Mon Chancelier—“my chancellor.” A native of France, long established in Philadelphia as an attorney with expertise in international law, Du Ponceau was the French legation’s lawyer and represented the French government in a variety of legal matters during Létombe’s service as minister to the United States. The organizers of Philadelphia’s inaugural tribute on 4 Mch. used “Jefferson’s March” to open and close the primary celebration at the German Reformed Church, and a band played the tune at a subscription dinner that afternoon. Enthusiasts quickly asked to hear it at the Chestnut Street (or New) Theatre, where the musical director, Alexander Reinagle, had written a “new President’s March” to mark the political transition. The theater had been a showcase for some Federalist songs, and the Philadelphia Gazette, attempting to warn the proprietors against any change in partisan inflection, claimed that the new works were “offensive” to three-fourths of the people who regularly attended the theater’s performances. There was at least one other piece of music called “Jefferson’s March,” issued by a New York music teacher and publisher, James Hewitt, in March 1801. It was apparently Hewitt’s own composition, unrelated to the Philadelphia melody. To compound the confusion of titles, a few months later Michael Fortune put new words to the Philadelphia score of “Jefferson’s March” and called it “Jefferson and Liberty.” The latter title was also used for at least one other set of lyrics in 1801, sung to an existing tune at the time of the inauguration (Aurora, 4, 6 Mch. 1801; Philadelphia Gazette, 6 Mch.; Alexandria Times, 19 Feb. 1801; Frances Sergeant Childs, French Refugee Life in the United States, 1790–1800: An American Chapter of the French Revolution [Baltimore, 1940], 100–1; Du Ponceau to Louis André Pichon, 1 July 1801, Lb in Du Ponceau Papers, PHi; Richard J. Wolfe, Secular Music in America, 1801–1825, 3 vols. [New York, 1964], 1:371–2, 376, 448; 2:449; Michael Fortune, Jefferson and Liberty. A New Song [Philadelphia, 1801; Shaw-Shoemaker description begins Ralph R. Shaw and Richard H. Shoemaker, comps., American Bibliography: A Preliminary Checklist for 1801–1819, New York, 1958–63, 22 vols. description ends , No. 734]; ANB description begins John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes, eds., American National Biography, New York and Oxford, 1999, 24 vols. description ends , s.v. “Reinagle, Alexander”; Vol. 30:325n; Fortune to TJ, 23 June 1801).

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